Panel's school safety package OK'd, avoids hot-button issues

Thursday

May 10, 2018 at 12:09 PMMay 10, 2018 at 3:43 PM

The Associated Press

RALEIGH — A legislative committee on Thursday recommended more funding, staffing and training to make North Carolina's schools safer, gaining bipartisan approval while ignoring or delaying action on further gun restrictions and tougher criminal penalties.

The House panel, formed in the days after the Parkland, Florida school shooting in February that left 17 people dead, approved more than a dozen proposals that its leaders said are good initial steps. Some or all of the recommendations are likely to be debated during the General Assembly's annual work session beginning next week.

"These are not insufficient recommendations. Do we need to do more? Of course, we can't ever do enough to keep our children as safe as we think they should be," said Rep. Josh Dobson, a McDowell County Republican and leader of a panel subcommittee. "But these are concrete recommendations to keep our schools safer that have received bipartisan support."

The recommendations, approved with no opposition, don't include a lot of specific funding requests — only about $8 million. Over half of it would go toward a statewide expansion of a pilot program, currently in a few counties, that gives students access to a mobile phone app to anonymously report potential safety threats to authorities.

Lawmakers acknowledged that it would take a large investment to meet one of its top proposals — a goal of meeting nationally recommended staff-student ratios for school counselors, psychologists and social workers. State officials told them earlier it would cost more than $500 million annually to meet those standards. The panel's report doesn't recommend a specific funding amount for these support workers.

Any changes would have to be voted on by the House and Senate before they're sent to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. His proposed budget adjustments, officially released later Thursday, include $40 million for districts to hire at least 500 additional school nurses, psychologists, social workers and counselors and $10 million for more campus-based police officers. Cooper also wants funds for campus security upgrades.

The committee's proposal recommended $1.8 million in grants to hire more officers in elementary and middle schools, extending a grant program started in 2013. School resource officers also would have to meet specialized training requirements.

House Minority Leader Darren Jackson, a Wake County Democrat, said he was disappointed Republicans who lead the committee declined to take up proposals on firearms, such as giving judges authority to temporarily remove guns from someone considered dangerous.

Republicans have little interest in Democratic proposals to raise the age to purchase assault-style rifles to 21 or require background checks for those weapons.

"Don't fool yourself — this bill is nowhere near sufficient," Jackson said. "We have not done hardly anything to address this problem, this real danger in our schools. And until we talk about all these other issues, I'm afraid we're not protecting our kids, at least not to the full extent we can."

Committee leaders left out a draft proposal to raise criminal penalties for people who unlawfully bring guns onto campus and to make it a felony punishable by prison time to communicate a threat of mass violence at a school. Both Democrats and Republicans raised more questions Thursday about the changes, which were requested by a district attorney.

The panel didn't address whether public school teachers should be armed. Lawmakers also said more details were needed to clarify a state law that allows local governments to use retired officers or military police as additional armed protection at schools.

The committee also wants to require charter schools to develop a risk management plan and hold school safety exercises — mandates already in place for traditional public schools. All school districts also would be required each year to evaluate all school buildings for safety concerns.

The panel recommended that "threat assessment teams" be required in schools to educate students, teachers and staff on recognizing threatening behavior and identifying students who may pose a danger.

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